The Philosophy of History - Alfred Boucher (1850-1934)

A remarkable white Cararra marble carved high relief.

France
height 67 cm
around 1898-1900

This is the variant of a model exhibited by Alfred Boucher at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in 1898 and then at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 and which became one of his great successes. The difference between the known sculptures essentially relates to the treatment of the hair and the size of the work.

The museum of Nogent-sur-Seine preserves a sculpture with the similar subject (inv.1995.2).

Bibliography :
- "Centenaire du Musée de Nogent-sur-Seine, 1902-2002", Jacques Piette, Edition Paton, Nogent-sur-Seine, Musée Dubois-Boucher, 2002, rep. p. 32 sous le n°19.
- "Alfred Boucher, 1850-1934, L'œuvre sculpté, catalogue raisonné", Jacques Piette, Mare & Martin, Paris, 2014, p.238, n°A56.

Biography :
The father of Alfred Boucher (1850-1934), a farm worker in Bouy-sur-Orvin moved to Nogent-sur-Seine in 1859, serving the sculptor Joseph Marius Ramus. Noticed by the artist of which Alfred Boucher became the assistant, the teenager was introduced to Paul Dubois, famous sculptor, native of Nogent-sur-Seine, who encouraged him in his vocation of artist. Supported by grants from his town and department, Alfred Boucher entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1869 and took classes with Paul Dubois and Auguste Dumont. Despite a double failure at the first prize in Rome, he received the second prize for sculpture in 1876. He spent a long time in Italy twice, in 1877-1878 and 1883-1884. The Salon of 1881 crowned him for his "Filial Piety". From then on his fame grew through the diffusion of bronze reductions of his works and by the many busts he made: he immortalized both men of science like Laennec, men of letters like Maupassant, and political figures like the King of Greece Georges I or President Jean Casimir-Perier, and many others. He became one of the French artists most solicited by public commissions and successfully tackled different subjects.

In a realistic vein, he expressed the taste of his time for Antiquity and Olympism revived thanks to Pierre de Courbertin with his group of runners entitled "Au but!" which was awarded at the Salon of 1886 in Paris. A large version made of bronze and installed in the garden of Luxembourg in Paris, was melted during the Occupation.
In the same spirit, he represented the discus thrower Gustave Huot in antique disco on a medal. Boucher, like some confreres of the time (Jules Dalou, Constantin Meunier, Paul Richer ...), addressed social and naturalistic subjects by representing men at work with "Le Terrassier" or "La Petite Moissonneuse". He prefered, however, more poetic themes by associating nature, feminine nude and mythology as in the series of "Volubilis" and "Baigneuses". These decorative subjects were disseminated by reproductions in bronze, marble or Sèvres porcelain. Appreciated by the wealthy bourgeoisie and the political authorities, Boucher moved to Aix-les-Bains in 1889, maintaining his Parisian studio, and honored numerous orders for memorials. One example is the funeral chapel of the Hériot family in 1899 in Caulaincourt, or the burial of the Lyon minister Auguste Burdeau in Paris at the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

At the height of his fame, he was crowned by the grand prix of sculpture of the Exposition Universelle of 1900. After the Great War, using a new material, the reinforced cement, Alfred Boucher realized again, at the end of his life, the monuments to the dead of Nogent-sur-Seine (1920), and Aix-les-Bains (1922). Faithful to the city that had supported him in his formative years, he founded, in 1902 in Nogent-sur-Seine, the Paul Dubois-Alfred Boucher museum, which became the Camille Claudel museum in 2017, which housed a collection of his works. Generous and philanthropist, Boucher also created, the same year, the Parisian city of La Ruche to help young artists by arranging for them workshops in the Montparnasse district by recovering a pavilion of the 1900 World Fair.